This invention relates to ultrasound imaging systems, and more specifically relates to archiving of data generated by such systems.
Traditionally, ultrasound image data archiving and communication systems are hospital based. Each hospital maintains its own data base of ultrasound imaging data and maintains a local area network for distributing and retrieving such data. Maintaining such a data base is expensive for an individual hospital and requires trained personnel in order to operate the system efficiently and accurately. As a result, there is a need for a way of storing ultrasound image data in a more inexpensive manner which also enables rapid and secure retrieval of the data for an individual patient. This invention solves that need.